How you got started with modding ArmA

[therussiandong]

Not asking for a tutorial here.
I am looking at the big modders that I see produce quality work very frequently and simply asking:

"How did you get introduced and familiarized with the BI Tools such as: Oxygen2 and Vistor3?"

I'm trying to get my foot in the door but all the tutorials I see online aren't really helping much..

[Anthropoid]

Just to add to your request: me too!

As someone with a lot of experience in various other game communities, the Armaverse is a wonderful but rather bewildering place. The fact that you can pretty effectively simulate small unit and even up to very small battalion sized combined arms engagements and even _campaigns_ is rather stunningly exciting coming from a long history of more turn-based strategic war games. The ArmA community is obviously very mature, intelligent, friendly, expert, and keen to help. There is a shit ton of stuff to read. But I too have found my efforts to learn more and delve more deeply to be thwarted by a few points:

1. There is a long history of evolving iterations of the Arma game series. Any given resource may be useful only for a specific iteration in the series history. For example, I see that the BIS Wiki on servers doesn't seem to make reference to the arma2oaserver.exe which seems to have been developed to simplify the process of setting up a server. A second example of this: the CPBO application, which was recommended to me as a tool to extract PBOs, and get familiar with the various files involved in setting up the 'finishing touches' on missions (tasks, etc.) seems to have been last updated prior to CO (or at least the download link I find on Armaholic). When I try to use the application to extract PBOs for the simple learning purpose of changing the parameters of the Freedom Fighters mission so that it has no time-limit, the app doesn't work. Could it be it doesn't work with ArmA2? Doesn't work with Win 7? Maybe I just installed it wrong?

2. Because the game community is quite 'advanced' both in terms of how long the game series has been evolving and how long the community has existed, a LOT of the help that exists presumes much more than a complete beginner's level of understanding. For example, I have read about setting up a dediciated server in various threads here on the forums and the BIS wiki. But I still don't really understand the most basic issues such as: what "setting up a server" means, nor what it is really useful for, etc. very basic types of issues that veteran players will fully comprehend but beginners who are told "To get Benny Warfare Edition to work for singleplayer play you need to setup a dedicated server" don't have a clue.

[Slatts]

Looking in the Arma 2 editing forums for how to start making models isn't going to work

Instead you need to go back a bit http://ofp.gamepark.cz/_hosted/brsseb/tutorials.htm

I used these to learn how to make models, don't worry about how old they are, the basics still apply

The only thing that isn't quite the same are the animations like wheels and rotors, they are done on model.cfg and not the main config.cpp

[therussiandong]

Looking in the Arma 2 editing forums for how to start making models isn't going to work
Instead you need to go back a bit http://ofp.gamepark.cz/_hosted/brsseb/tutorials.htm
I used these to learn how to make models, don't worry about how old they are, the basics still apply
The only thing that isn't quite the same are the animations like wheels and rotors, they are done on model.cfg and not the main config.cpp

GET A LOAD OF THIS GUY...
Slatts. Thank you very much man. I've never seen that website but I can tell its going to do wonders for me.

Hopefully some other people will share their secrets too.

[therussiandong]

Slatts? What about configs?
How did you get started with them?

The guide you provided hardly explains them and it seems to mainly apply to OFP.

[Slatts]

Slatts? What about configs?
How did you get started with them?

The guide you provided hardly explains them and it seems to mainly apply to OFP.

Aye, I did them through alot of trail and error and asking for help on these forums, you should find what you need in either Arma 1/2 editing-> configs and do a search of stuff like weapon/car/tank config

[Messiah]

As slatts said, BRSSEB's tutorials were my starting point as well, and they're still very relevant in terms of getting a basic hand on how O2 works and how to build a model. Improving your abilities from that point is all about practice. I've been modding this game and it's sequels for about 10 years now, and I still discover/learn new tricks and techniques through every project. The forums here are also a great place to exchange information, ask questions, pester people about things that are driving you up the wall. Within this communiy I couldn't imagine any question that cannot be answered. Someone has been there, done it, and is eager to help.

Configs wise, I spent a huge amount of time reading through the BIS example configs, as well as (cheekily) opening up some of my favourite addons and seeing how they put things together. I know configs appear to be a huge headache, but in truth that isn't entirely the case. Again with practice and persistance, they'll become quite obvious, sort of like learning a new language, and eventually you become rather fluent in writing configs from scratch, but until then, my advice boils down to:

1. Keep configs simple at first. Don't try and define everything at once, you're bound to introduce a huge amount of errors which become harder to track down. I always, even today, begin with a very simple base config that just gets my (for example) vehicle ingame. No weapons, no bells or whistles, just something that inherit's its values from a vehicle already ingame.

2. Once you know this works, then and only then start to introduce more lines into the config. Simple things at first, speed, offroad coefficient, etc, and again test regularly to make sure it's still working. Once you're more confident and have a good base to work off, then you can start adding things such as weapons.

3. Find examples and ask. I'm sure most people here would quite happily write a quick and dirty config that would get a vehicle ingame so you can see how things fit together. It's all a learning process, so really, take the time to read the commented configs from BIS, as well as looking at other people's configs for inspiration.